Western Digital My Book Studio (2011)

Western Digital’s My Book Studio ($150-$250) external hard drives have long been popular with Mac users, and they’ve just gotten an even more Apple-like facelift. Now available in 1TB, 2TB, and 3TB capacities, these fancy book-shaped drives come formatted for Macs and ready to use with Time Machine. A new brushed aluminum casing makes them look even better than before.

So just what is new with these updated drives? The biggest change is the casing—it’s now a perfect match for your aluminum-bodied Mac. Not only does it look great, but it also helps keep the WD Caviar Green drive mechanism inside naturally cool. There’s now no need for an internal fan, which leads to a quieter drive that lasts longer. USB 2.0 and Firewire 800/400 are on the back, but no Thunderbolt; that’s probably because of the currently high cost of implementing the super high-speed data port right now. Here’s hoping for a turbocharged version in 2012, but we like the looks and pricing of this version quite a bit right now.